How to convert a Kindle book to PDF

The Kindle is a great success for Amazon. Both the hardware and the digital service revolutionized the way people read books, magazines, comics, and other media on a daily basis. Customers can’t just download Kindle books and read them on any app, unfortunately.

All Kindle e-books are limited to Kindle hardware due to Digital Rights Management (DRM). Even though Kindle tablets accept MOBI files, these digital books use Amazon’s proprietary AZW file format. This makes it practically hard to read these e-books outside of the Kindle bubble. The good news is that DRM protection may be removed using free software; nevertheless, you should not share your e-books with others, since you may be in violation of copyright laws.

It’s simple to convert Kindle books to PDFs once the DRM has been removed. This post will show you how to convert a Kindle book to PDF so you can read your purchases on any e-book reader, not just a Kindle.

See more

  • How to read EPUB books on your Kindle
  • Best free Kindle books
  • Common Kindle Fire problems, and how to fix them

Download the AZW file(s)

The e-book cannot be downloaded to any PC due to Digital Rights Management. Readers must have an Amazon account and a hardware Kindle. If they don’t, they’ll get an error message that says, “You have selected content that is not compatible with any of your registered devices.”

Kindle e-books will not download without a real Kindle device linked to an Amazon account, even if the e-book is read via the Kindle app on Windows 10, Android, or iOS.

Step 1: Once Amazon’s website loaded, click on your name and then Account from the drop-down menu.

Step 2: Go to Digital Content and Devices and select Manage Content and Devices.

Step 3: As seen above, click the Three-dot Actions button next to the destination e-book.

Step 4: On the pop-up menu, choose Download & Transfer Via USB.

Step 5: The registered Kindle is selected in a pop-up window. To get started, click the yellow Download button.

The AWZ file will be downloaded to your PC’s default folder, not to the Kindle device mentioned.

Note: Calibre now offers a plugin called the KFX Input plugin, which allows you to import KFX files as well. Skip to the Calibre section to find out how to use it.

Convert using Calibre (Windows/MacOS/Linux)

Calibre is a powerful e-book manager that provides users complete creative control and a plethora of possibilities for customizing their graphics and visual pictures. The app’s interface is simple to use and navigate, resulting in an amazing and extremely instructive transition experience. Calibre can also work with or without a persistent or running network connection.

Download and install DRM Removal Tool

You’ll need to download an older version of Calibre, to remove the DRM from your Kindle e-books. You’ll also need to download Apprentice Alf’s DRM Removal Tool after you’ve downloaded and installed the software. Rather than the most recent version, you should download and install v6.8.1, which is compatible with Calibre version 4. Simply click the DeDRM tools zipped folder to download it to your computer, then right-click it and select Extract All to unpack it (or however you would normally unzip folders on your computer).

To install the DRM Removal Tool Plug-in for Calibre, follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to Calibre and choose Preferences from the top menu on the right-hand side.

Step 2: Pull down until you see Advanced, click Plug-Ins.

Step 3: Click Load Plug-In From File at the bottom right, after that, choose the DeDRM_Plugin zipped folder on your computer in the appear window.

Step 4: Choose Open. Calibre will now install the plug-in.

Step 5: Reboot Calibre.

Adding your Kindle serial number to Calibre

Things get a little more tricky here, but we’ll walk you through the process. You must enter your Kindle serial number into Calibre in the following manner:

Step 1: Choose Preferences again from the top menu.

Step 2: Choose Advanced then choose Plug-ins.

Step 3: Double click the line that says File Type.

Step 4: Double click on the DeDRM plug-in.

Step 5: Choose the first option that says eInk Kindle ebooks and then choose OK.

Step 6: You need to find and enter your Kindle serial number now.

Step 7: You may discover this on most Kindles by navigating to Settings > All Settings > Device Options > Device Info. Your Kindle’s information, including the serial number, should be shown.

Step 8: If you’re not sure where to look for your Kindle’s serial number, try searching for “Serial location” plus your Kindle model, such as “10th Gen Paperwhite”.

Step 9: Now type the serial number into Calibre without any spaces.

Step 10: Choose Close, then OK and click Apply.

You’re all set to convert your DRM-free e-books to PDF now!

Adding your books to Calibre

You’ll need to add your e-books to Calibre before you can convert them to PDF. Simply choose the books from your downloads folder, or wherever you saved them after downloading them from Amazon, by clicking Add Books at the upper left of the menu.

Converting your e-books to PDF

After you’ve installed the DRM Removal plug-in, converting e-books to PDF is simple because Calibre handles everything. To convert your book, follow these steps:

Step 1: Click on the book you want to convert is highlighted in your list to make sure that it is highlighted.

Step 2: In Calibre, go to the top menu and select Convert Books. You can also right-click a book and pick Convert Books, then Convert Individually or Bulk Convert from the drop-down menu.

Step 3: At the top left of the pop-up window, make sure AZW3 is selected as the Input Format. Select PDF from the drop-down option at the top right where it says Output Format.

Step 4: You can also change output parameters like line height and font size, but we recommend converting the book first to see how it appears; you can always re-convert it later if you need to make changes. The default settings are sufficient for most books.

Step 5: Double-check the author and title on the right side of your screen.

Step 6: At the bottom of the screen, click OK to start the conversion.

Step 7: When it’s done, the jobs counter in the lower right corner will reset to zero.

Step 8: At the right of your screen, under Formats, you should now notice a blue link that says PDF when you highlight the book in your list.

Step 9: To open your book in PDF format, click this.

Step 10: Calibre saves e-books to the Calibre Library folder on your hard drive by default.

Step 11: In Calibre, select Click To Open under Formats on the right-hand side of your screen to transmit the book to yourself (through email, for example) to read on other devices. This will bring up all of the data related with that book on your hard drive, including the cover.

In this video, we are gonna show you how to convert Kindle Books to PDF using Calibre:

That’s about it

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